Umpires Are Penalized

By The Associated Press

Feb. 9, 2016

One umpire was barred for life and another suspended for a year, the International Tennis Federation confirmed Tuesday in response to an article by The Guardian.

Kirill Parfenov of Kazakhstan was barred for life in February 2015 for using Facebook to contact another official in an “attempt to manipulate the scoring of matches,” the I.T.F. said in a statement. Denis Pitner of Croatia was suspended for a year in August after passing on details on the “physical well-being of a player to a coach during a tournament and regularly logging on to a betting account from which bets were placed on tennis matches,” the I.T.F. said.

Four other unidentified officials have been suspended while investigations into their conduct continue.

The Guardian reported that the offenses took place on the Futures Tour, the lowest rung of professional tennis, and alleged that the umpires took bribes from betting syndicates in exchange for manipulating live scores.

■ Top-seeded Richard Gasquet withdrew from the World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, because of illness and a groin injury. (AP)

■ Federico Delbonis beat sixth-seeded Fabio Fognini, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires. (AP)

■ Fifth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova needed 2 hours 14 minutes to beat the qualifier Klara Koukalova, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, in the first round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy in Russia.